Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo and Huawei Team Up to Compete with The Google Play Store

Chinese OEMs play a massive role in the smartphone industry. Brands like Xiaomi, BBK Electronics (Oppo and Vivo), and Huawei are some of the highest-selling smartphone brands, with up to 40% of global smartphone sell. Google Play Store and GMS (Google Mobile Services) are necessary for the complete Android experience. However, Huawei no longer uses the GMS, and instead, they use HMS (Huawei Mobile Services) after the US Ban. Now, these four giant Chinese smartphone brands are coming together to develop a Google Play Store Alternative. They are working on the “Global Developer Service Alliance” or GDSA, which will launch in March.

Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA)

Reuters reports that four smartphone maker is developing a Play Store alternative. However, it does not mean that it will take form in a single store. All four brands will have their own App Store in which the content will be the same. So it will strengthen the respective app stores of all four brands. This new platform will allow the app developers to upload their apps once, and the apps will be published on all the 4 App Stores.

Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA) is expected to be launched in March. However, it might get late due to the Corona Virus outbreak. This new platform would cover nine different countries, including China, India, Indonesia, and Russia. Also, OnePlus and Realme are a part of BBK Electronics, so that they might join this alliance as well. However, there is no confirmation on it.

[Update]

Nicole Peng, the VP of Mobility at Canalys, said, “By forming this alliance, each company will be looking to leverage the others’ advantages in different regions, with Xiaomi’s strong user base in India, Vivo and Oppo in Southeast Asia, and Huawei in Europe. Secondly, it’s to start to build some more negotiation power against Google.”

While the Xiaomi stated that there is no intention to go against Google and they are developing this platform so that app developers can easily upload their apps on all the app stores in China, global app developers will have only to upload their apps on 2 major platforms, one is the Play Store, and the second one is this new platform.

The website of GDSA is live now on which the app developers can upload the apps. The details of Oppo, Vivo, and Xiaomi is present while the Huawei is missing for some reason. So far, the platform is going to very useful for the app developers, and they will be able to publish the apps in China where the Google services are banned. We don’t have any statement from Google regarding this.

Why There is a need of Google Play Store Alternative

As you know, Google Play Store and other Google Services, including YouTube, can’t be used in China, and for this reason, the smartphones sold in China do not have the Play Store. They have to install APKs from a third-party source or proprietary app stores of the respective brands. For example, Mi Apps on Xiaomi, Oppo App Store, and Huawei AppGallery. Most of the popular apps are available in these stores, but still, each of them is far from the Play Store. Huawei Mobile Services has about 45,000 apps, while the Play Store has around 3 Million apps. For this reason, Chinese OEMs are coming together to develop the Global Developer Service Alliance to compete with the Google Play Store.

That’s all in this article on Global Developer Service Alliance (GDSA). Share your thought on the Google Play Store Alternative.

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